I’m proud to announce the opening of a new collective Talmud Blog. Here scholars of rabbinic literature will find announcements (of articles, new publications, conferences, and more); a curated list of links (in the “tools” section) for aiding in talmudic research; original posts that present new research; discussions of critical methodologies, and of course the French import even more beloved than “freedom fries” – Critique.
Detail from Berakhot 2a
The Vilna edition of the Babylonian Talmud begins on page 2a. In Heder they told us that this was because there is always more to learn. Or we might retell the myth by saying that everything we encounter has a pre-history. This blog is a re-imagined version of my now defunct Talmud Blog. I do hope that you, reader, will join us in this exciting enterprise and that you will contribute to the dialogue by posting comments, and where appropriate, guest posting. In that spirit, The Talmud Blog will begin its operations with a series of guest posts by our friend Ari Lamm, who is currently attending the International SBL meeting in London.
We are all very excited about embarking on this journey together.
The Talmud Blog 
Prof. Israel Eldad in his “Hegyonot Mikra” explained that the letter “bet” which is the first letter of the Torah (“Breishit”) was selected because in its shape – closed to the right, above and below but open to the left. And since the Hebrew language precedes from right to left, it is as if indicating to us that we need not look back but simply move forward, that the Torah, whatever went before, is now ours to develop. Good luck.
excellent! I’m looking forward to it.
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